Blessing Awoniyi

Another Rain

Kaoooh!

Kaoooooooh!

Kaoooooooooooooh!

Rumbling and roaring

More and more

Here and there

As we awaited another rain

That would give our land a yearly gain

Every heart gripped with fear

To be outdoors, most men would not dear

But Grandma emerged

From her hut

In her palms, a pot of palm oil rested

She sang and danced

As she emptied

The liquid on the parched earth

Praising the god and his mistresses

For the blessings of another rain.

We gazed at her from the doorpost

While she continued singing.

 

Alas!  She returned as though

With ten commandments

From Sango.

Her eyes glittered like embers

And her voice thundered:

No one!

No one!

No one should stand on

The path of the deity of thunder and lightning!

We trembled and backed away.

Because the god was 

Within the earshot

As Grandma staggered after us.

 

*Sango is the deity of thunder and lightning in the Yoruba cosmology